 Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.  Sift flour, baking soda and ground ginger together and place in a bowl or food processor. Add Soft Brown Sugar or Dark Cane Sugar.  Add butter and rub in with fingertips or pulse in food processor until resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and stir or pulse to mix. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour to the mix and wrap in cling wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Roll out on lightly floured surface or between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Here is usually where you would make gingerbread men. However, using a knife, try making some of these shapes. If attempting a shape with many sides, like the nonagon, the bigger you make it the easier it will be. Take the opportunity to talk about the different number of sides, lines of symmetry or perhaps rotational symmetry.

 Bake shapes for 8-10 minutes or until cooked and golden. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack.  Make icing by adding a few drops of food colouring and 1 1⁄2 tsp water to the icing sugar.

Our DPS Masterchef is going to involve a series of recipes for you to make with your family at home. Each recipe will have some specific maths learning that you can talk to your children about. At the end of the series, you will be invited to a shared lunch where you can bring a plate of your favourite recipe for everyone to try! The recipes can be picked up from Hayley in Room 9 on Tuesdays each week or found at the DPS website under: Blogs, then Masterchef. (http://www.douglaspark.school.nz/masterchef). We would love it if you sent us some photos of your baking at home. You can email them to James Riley at jamesriley@douglaspark.school.nz and we will put them on the school website. Learning about time through cooking: Before you start it’s a good idea to talk about how long you will need to prepare the dough for the pizzas. You could go through the recipe and find all the times and add them together. Show your child the clock and tell them what the time is when they start and when you can expect to finish. You may have a timer in your kitchen that you could set. At each part that has a time, tell them how long you have set it for so they can get a ‘feel’ for how long that is. Alternatively, look at the clock (analogue or digital) and discuss the time you start and the time it will be done. You may also talk to your child about how many minutes in an hour, then how many in half an hour and a quarter of an hour. You can talk about the hands on the clock and that the clock is broken into 5 minute segments. Remember, time is a tricky concept and your child won’t understand it straight away. That’s ok. Each time you talk about time, they will pick up something new and build on what they already know. Pizza dough recipe This easy pizza dough recipe makes enough for two dinners, or four pizzas. Once you have split the dough in half, you can wrap half in glad wrap and freeze it until you need it for the next pizza night. It’s a good idea to start making the pizza dough as soon as you get home so it has time to rest. Serving Size: 4 pizzasIngredients: · 500g plain flour · 1 teaspoon salt · 11/2 teaspoon dry yeast · Pinch sugar · 11/4 cup warm water · 1-2 tablespoons olive oilMethod: Sprinkle yeast over warm water, add a pinch of sugar, stir with a wooden spoon quickly then leave to activate (approx 5 min). In a mixer with dough hook (or bowl) add flour and salt, mix to combine then when yeast has activated (top starts to foam) pour into the flour and mix on low speed adding 1 tablespoon on oil at a time until it forms into a ball. Remove from bowl and kneed for 3-5 minutes, until the dough is soft and pliable. Sprinkle flour in your bowl and place dough back in, cover with glad wrap and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. When doubled in size, cut dough in half and then half again (quarters). Roll out to make your pizza base. Place the dough onto your oven tray before applying sauce and toppings of your choice.Bake pizzas one at a time until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes.

Our DPS Masterchef is going to involve a series of recipes for you to make with your family at home. Each recipe will have some specific maths learning that you can talk to your children about.

At the end of the series, you will be invited to a shared lunch where you can bring a plate of your favourite recipe for everyone to try!

The recipes can be picked up from Hayley in Room 9 on Tuesdays each week or found at the DPS website under: Blogs, then Masterchef. (http://www.douglaspark.school.nz/masterchef). We would love it if you sent us some photos of your baking at home. You can email them to James Riley at jamesriley@douglaspark.school.nz and we will put them on the school website.

Before you begin it may be a good idea to show the children the measuring utensils that you are going to use. Some measuring cups have multiple cups in them. There are also measuring cups that come as individual amount for 1 cup, 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 cup.

It is best to do this activity with one cup that has measurements written on it. If you have the individual ones you can add different math activities before you start cooking.

Base: Sift flours into a bowl, add coconut. Combine brown sugar and butter in a pan until sugar has dissolved. Add mixture to the flours and stir. Press into tin with back of spoon, bake for 10 mins or until brown.

Filling: Combine butter, Golden Syrup and condensed milk in a saucepan. Stir for 5 to 10 mins until mixture boils and browns (watch it doesn't burn on bottom). Smooth over the base and bake for 15-20 minutes until just starting to caramelise around the edges.

Topping: Combine chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl, stand over pan of boiling water until melted. Allow the filling to cool before spreading over the chocolate topping.

Our DPS Masterchef is going to involve a series of recipes for you to make with your family at home. Each recipe will have some specific maths learning that you can talk to your children about.

At the end of the series, you will be invited to a shared lunch where you can bring a plate of your favourite recipe for everyone to try!The recipes can be picked up from Hayley in Room 9 on Tuesdays each week or found at the DPS website under: Blogs, then Masterchef. Email your pictures to jamesriley@douglaspark.school.nz